FIRST HONOR I Philippines Most Malware-infected country in the region — Microsoft

MANILA, Philippines — The country leads the pack in the number of
malware infections in the region according to a report by Microsoft
Corp.
According to the 16th edition of the Microsoft (SIR) Security
Intelligence Report, both of the country’s malware encounter and
infection rate were well above the global average and other countries in
the region.
The Philippines’ malware infection rate for the 4th quarter of 2013
hit 32 percent, the highest in the region as well as other countries
such as Australia, United States, and way above the global average of
21.6 percent. Our malware encounter rate, defined as the percentage of
computers running Microsoft security products that reported a malware,
reached 46.3 per cent, an average figure for the region but way above
the global average of 21.6 per cent.

“Almost half of the computers here in the Philippines encountered
malware in the fourth quarter of 2013. For the Philippines, it has been
above the worldwide average,” Tim Rains, director for Trustworthy
Computing at Microsoft Corp., said in a media briefing.Rains, however, stressed that though there though the infection rate
for the Philippines may seem high, the actual percentage is low.
“It’s not out of hand. 32 infections out of 1,000 is just a fraction,” Rains said.
Tracking the worldwide trend, both the country’s encounter and
infection rate have also increased. For the malware encounter rate, the
country posted 40.8 percent in the first quarter, 45.1 percent in the
second quarter, 43.9 percent in the third quarter, and 46.3 per cent in
the fourth quarter. For the country’s malware infection rate, the figure
grew from 13.4 percent in the first quarter of 2013, to 18.1 percent in
the second quarter, dipped to 17.3 percent in the third quarter, and
surged to 32.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

In what might be the most ingenious ad campaign for anti-virus software we’ve ever seen, Kaspersky Lab has put has put together a terrifying, interactive infographic of sorts calling attention to malware threats in real-time. The “Cyberthreat Real-Time Map” visualizes our planet in relation to malware, displaying the infection rates in every country and ranking them based on which are the most infected. Russia comes in at number 1, with the United States and India taking the 2 and 3 spots, respectively. Of course, it’s nothing more than a clever endorsement for Kaspersky Lab’s Security Scan software, but it’s fascinating to see the reach of malware across the globe in such a visually evocative format. See for yourself on Kaspersky’s site.